Shostakovich CD and DVD
The iconoclastic self-produced debut recording of 2006, featuring Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 and Violin Sonata, with Alexei Grynyuk, Benjamin Wallfisch and the Philharmonia Orchestra, burst onto the commercial scene eclipsing all of the other recordings of that repertoire in Shostakovich's centenary year. After wide critical acclaim, the Classical BRIT Awards awarded Ruth "Best Young British Artist" for the recording in 2007.
The DVD offers an in-depth documentary, by director Tim Meara, on Shostakovich and Ruth's recording process, with footage from Shostakovich's Datcha near St Petersburg, an interview with Shostakovich's widow Irina in Paris, and expert commentary from Gerard McBurney and Felix Andrievsky in London.
The DVD offers an in-depth documentary, by director Tim Meara, on Shostakovich and Ruth's recording process, with footage from Shostakovich's Datcha near St Petersburg, an interview with Shostakovich's widow Irina in Paris, and expert commentary from Gerard McBurney and Felix Andrievsky in London.
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FROM THE PRESS
Independent on Sunday***** – Anna Picard (06/08/06)
Hot on the heels of Leila Josefowicz’s polished Warner Classics recording comes young British soloist Ruth Palmer’s first disc for Quartz. Palmer is Josefowicz’s junior, but such is the distinction of her musical intelligence that this disc (and accompanying DVD) is a fearsome rival to the earlier release. First, there’s the sound: wheezing, triumphant, sarcastic, mournful. Then Palmer’s phrasing, which comes from the bones. Under Benjamin Wallfisch, the Philharmonia accompany the Concerto expertly, but the greater performance is of the Sonata, where Palmer and Alexei Grynyuk convey an unbearable, complex sorrow.
Times**** – Rick Jones (02/09/06)
Palmer’s bow has a demonic edge that inflames the Scherzo and Burleske movements of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No1, and her tone is so sweatily intense that one cannot turn away from the Nocturno and Passacaglia. Let loose in the cadenza, she makes the composers wringing anxieties her own, and if she doesn’t quite dig as deeply as Vengerov, it is only because she is still young. The Violin Sonata is more personal still, but she uncovered its truths on a trip to Russia that is documented on an excellent accompanying DVD.
Guardian**** – Andrew Clements (29/09/06)
In a year already replete with Shostakovich recordings, this one deserves special mention. Ruth Palmer is a young British violinist who trained at the Royal College of Music. She organised this recording herself, arranging sponsorship and collaborating with Director Tim Meara on the half-hour film about Shostakovich, which comes on the accompanying DVD. There’s a whiff of designer chic about the presentation, and none of it would be significant if the performances were not so outstanding. Palmer tears into the ferociously demanding First Concerto in a way that none of the other versions released this year can match for intensity or in the latter movements, for poetic grandeur – and with the Philharmonia clearly galvanised by her playing, the results are spine-tingling. The late Violin Sonata inhabits an even more inward-looking world than the concerto, but Palmer is equally assured here, too. Altogether this is one of the most impressive Shostakovich discs to have appeared during the centenary.
International Record Review – Robert Matthew-Walker (09/06)
If one chooses to release a disc which commemorates the centenary or whatever of a particular composer whose music is often performed and recorded, one runs a very real risk of facing severe competition. The young English violinist Ruth Palmer, now in her early twenties, has faced this situation head-on. The story of how these recordings came to be made and released is fascinating in itself but ultimately irrelevant in terms of appreciation of the performances they contain.
In musical terms, however, the coupling of the First Concerto with the Sonata is not such a bad idea, and it has been done recently in a new recording by Leila Josefowicz on Warner Classics, with the CBSO under Sakari Oramo, a disc warmly welcomed by Richard Whitehouse in the last issue – and rightly so. Josefowicz’s recording of the Concerto comes from two live performances given in January of this year. She and the CBSO and Oramo repeated the work at the Proms on July 27th, but their later live account in London was not in the same class as that contained on her CD.
Nor, frankly is it better than the performance by Palmer – a performance which has astounded me. At the risk of seeming sexist, which I am not, I have always regarded this work as being more suitable for a male violinist; there is something inherently masculine about this concerto that – with one exception up to now, namely Ida Haendel – in the last analysis eludes female violinists. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but there it is. But in her performance on this CD, Palmer joins Haendel.
She gives it a truly magnificent account, and is exceptionally well accompanied by the Philharmonia, playing at the top of its form, brilliantly conducted by Benjamin Wallfisch (one of cellist Raphael’s musically gifted sons). Their tempos throughout are spot-on, whereas Josefowicz is slightly too fast for the ‘Nocturne’, slightly too slow for the ‘Scherzo’, and the ‘Passacaglia’ is not as nobly measured as it should be. As a direct comparison, Wallfisch begins the ‘Passacaglia’ at exactly the right tempo, and it is superbly sustained. Throughout, Oramo and the CBSO are not in the same class as the Philharmonia under Wallfisch. Not since David Oistrakh (or Haendel) have I heard such a movingly committed account of the solo part as Palmer delivers. It is wholly true to the composer.
Turning to the Sonata, although two recordings exist of David Oistrakh playing this work (with Sviatoslav Richter and with Shostakovich himself – the last recorded in the composer’s apartment), Palmer’s recording is the finest all-round I have experienced – indeed, her intellectual understanding of this extremely difficult work is wholly exceptional, and her musical acuity is admirable. She is the only violinist to deliver the direct quotation from Berg’s Violin Concerto (figure 80 in the finale) with just the right fractional emphasis and deeply emotional involvement (because it is so subtly understated by Shostakovich). She is partnered throughout with total commitment by Alexei Grynyuk, who is an equally outstanding player. All in all, Josefowicz’s disc, good as it is, is eclipsed.
As if these qualities were not enough, the package includes a DVD of a fascinating 30-minute film by Tim Meara, A People’s Music. This is well worth having, not least for the comments by Irina Shostakovich, Felix Andrievsky and others, as well as the black-and-white shots taken from old photographs, including pages from the original manuscript of the Concerto, and other details. This bonus film clinches it for me. If I hear a greater record of Shostakovich’s music this year, I shall be astonished.
The Strad - Julian Haylock (November 2006)
The Shostakovich centenary has inspired a flood of new recordings of the A minor Concerto, although none quite compares with the truly astonishing account by the young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride (Sony, reviewed in June), who plays with a heart-rending intensity to surpass even David Oistrakh’s world premiere recording for CBS with conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos.
You have to immerse yourself fully in the First Concerto’s forbiddingly claustrophobic world of anguished metaphors to discover its inner soul – and young British violinist Ruth Palmer does so fearlessly in the opening Notturno and third movement Passacaglia. There are times here when she appears to be merely breathing on her instrument, sharing half-whispered correspondences of painful intimacy. Interpretatively speaking, she is no less impressive in the whiplash Scherzo and high-energy finale, which she dispaches with astonishing flair and accuracy. Palmer sustains the most pure and jewelled sound thoughout, supported to the hilt by the Philharmonia, which plays with the greatest conviction under Benjamin Wallfisch. In fact my only slight reservation about this sumptuously engineered performance is Palmer’s occasional reluctance to throw care to the wind and risk a few ‘noises off’ as she drives the music home.
The central Allegretto of the late Sonata also finds Palmer slightly cushioning her vertical strokes and thereby taking some of the sting out of the music’s tail. But make no mistake, this is remarkable playing of considerable stature and a magnificent achievement for a debut album. Also included is a strikingly memorable half-hour documentary that traces Palmer’s visit to Russia, graced by a series of powerful monochrome images and her own perceptive comments on the music. Highly recommended.
Seriously Thrilling
Malcolm Hayes
Classic FM Magazine January 2007 Orchestral CD of the month
Ruth Palmer makes a remarkable debut in Shostakovich’s tragic First Violin Concerto. *****
Sure enough, Shostakovich’s centenary year has produced a spate of recordings of his First Violin Concerto. And now along comes Ruth Palmer, a young player making her debut CD with, of all things, this immense, immensely demanding, darkly tragic concerto – and who, instead of waiting for this or that company to come to her, raises the cash and engages the orchestra herself.
The result is seriously remarkable, and for my money the centenary’s most outstanding release so far. Palmer not only believes totally in the work but (and this is much rarer) can also convey this belief. Besides her mesmerising intensity and involvement, she summons startling firepower when it’s needed (which is often) and sustains it. She never sounds overstretched, not even by the fearsome cadenza linking the concerto’s slow movement and finale. And she gets a fired-up accompaniment from an evidently impressed Philharmonia. Her way with the late Violin Sonata’s spare sound-world, too, is every bit as gripping and moving. Tim Meara’s short DVD documentary, featuring palmer and Wallfisch visiting a snowbound Russia, tries over-hard to be visually inventive. But it also offers interesting thoughts from the composer’s widow Nina, from Shostakovich expert Gerard McBurney, and from Palmer herself.
CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK Telegraph (23/09/06)
**** ‘Real Bite’ Metro (24/07/06)
- "An unbearable, complex sorrow" Independent on Sunday*****
- "If I hear a greater record of Shostakovich’s music this year, I shall be astonished" International Record Review
- Palmer tears into the ferociously demanding First Concerto in a way that none of the other versions released this year can match for intensity or in the latter movements, for poetic grandeur Guardian****
- "Palmer's bow has a demonic edge" Times****
- "There are times here when she appears to be merely breathing on her instrument, sharing half-whispered correspondences of painful intimacy" The Strad
- CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK Telegraph
- Classic FM Magazine January 2007 Orchestral CD of the month
- **** ‘Real Bite’ Metro
- Seriously Thrilling ***** Classic FM Magazine
Independent on Sunday***** – Anna Picard (06/08/06)
Hot on the heels of Leila Josefowicz’s polished Warner Classics recording comes young British soloist Ruth Palmer’s first disc for Quartz. Palmer is Josefowicz’s junior, but such is the distinction of her musical intelligence that this disc (and accompanying DVD) is a fearsome rival to the earlier release. First, there’s the sound: wheezing, triumphant, sarcastic, mournful. Then Palmer’s phrasing, which comes from the bones. Under Benjamin Wallfisch, the Philharmonia accompany the Concerto expertly, but the greater performance is of the Sonata, where Palmer and Alexei Grynyuk convey an unbearable, complex sorrow.
Times**** – Rick Jones (02/09/06)
Palmer’s bow has a demonic edge that inflames the Scherzo and Burleske movements of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No1, and her tone is so sweatily intense that one cannot turn away from the Nocturno and Passacaglia. Let loose in the cadenza, she makes the composers wringing anxieties her own, and if she doesn’t quite dig as deeply as Vengerov, it is only because she is still young. The Violin Sonata is more personal still, but she uncovered its truths on a trip to Russia that is documented on an excellent accompanying DVD.
Guardian**** – Andrew Clements (29/09/06)
In a year already replete with Shostakovich recordings, this one deserves special mention. Ruth Palmer is a young British violinist who trained at the Royal College of Music. She organised this recording herself, arranging sponsorship and collaborating with Director Tim Meara on the half-hour film about Shostakovich, which comes on the accompanying DVD. There’s a whiff of designer chic about the presentation, and none of it would be significant if the performances were not so outstanding. Palmer tears into the ferociously demanding First Concerto in a way that none of the other versions released this year can match for intensity or in the latter movements, for poetic grandeur – and with the Philharmonia clearly galvanised by her playing, the results are spine-tingling. The late Violin Sonata inhabits an even more inward-looking world than the concerto, but Palmer is equally assured here, too. Altogether this is one of the most impressive Shostakovich discs to have appeared during the centenary.
International Record Review – Robert Matthew-Walker (09/06)
If one chooses to release a disc which commemorates the centenary or whatever of a particular composer whose music is often performed and recorded, one runs a very real risk of facing severe competition. The young English violinist Ruth Palmer, now in her early twenties, has faced this situation head-on. The story of how these recordings came to be made and released is fascinating in itself but ultimately irrelevant in terms of appreciation of the performances they contain.
In musical terms, however, the coupling of the First Concerto with the Sonata is not such a bad idea, and it has been done recently in a new recording by Leila Josefowicz on Warner Classics, with the CBSO under Sakari Oramo, a disc warmly welcomed by Richard Whitehouse in the last issue – and rightly so. Josefowicz’s recording of the Concerto comes from two live performances given in January of this year. She and the CBSO and Oramo repeated the work at the Proms on July 27th, but their later live account in London was not in the same class as that contained on her CD.
Nor, frankly is it better than the performance by Palmer – a performance which has astounded me. At the risk of seeming sexist, which I am not, I have always regarded this work as being more suitable for a male violinist; there is something inherently masculine about this concerto that – with one exception up to now, namely Ida Haendel – in the last analysis eludes female violinists. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but there it is. But in her performance on this CD, Palmer joins Haendel.
She gives it a truly magnificent account, and is exceptionally well accompanied by the Philharmonia, playing at the top of its form, brilliantly conducted by Benjamin Wallfisch (one of cellist Raphael’s musically gifted sons). Their tempos throughout are spot-on, whereas Josefowicz is slightly too fast for the ‘Nocturne’, slightly too slow for the ‘Scherzo’, and the ‘Passacaglia’ is not as nobly measured as it should be. As a direct comparison, Wallfisch begins the ‘Passacaglia’ at exactly the right tempo, and it is superbly sustained. Throughout, Oramo and the CBSO are not in the same class as the Philharmonia under Wallfisch. Not since David Oistrakh (or Haendel) have I heard such a movingly committed account of the solo part as Palmer delivers. It is wholly true to the composer.
Turning to the Sonata, although two recordings exist of David Oistrakh playing this work (with Sviatoslav Richter and with Shostakovich himself – the last recorded in the composer’s apartment), Palmer’s recording is the finest all-round I have experienced – indeed, her intellectual understanding of this extremely difficult work is wholly exceptional, and her musical acuity is admirable. She is the only violinist to deliver the direct quotation from Berg’s Violin Concerto (figure 80 in the finale) with just the right fractional emphasis and deeply emotional involvement (because it is so subtly understated by Shostakovich). She is partnered throughout with total commitment by Alexei Grynyuk, who is an equally outstanding player. All in all, Josefowicz’s disc, good as it is, is eclipsed.
As if these qualities were not enough, the package includes a DVD of a fascinating 30-minute film by Tim Meara, A People’s Music. This is well worth having, not least for the comments by Irina Shostakovich, Felix Andrievsky and others, as well as the black-and-white shots taken from old photographs, including pages from the original manuscript of the Concerto, and other details. This bonus film clinches it for me. If I hear a greater record of Shostakovich’s music this year, I shall be astonished.
The Strad - Julian Haylock (November 2006)
The Shostakovich centenary has inspired a flood of new recordings of the A minor Concerto, although none quite compares with the truly astonishing account by the young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride (Sony, reviewed in June), who plays with a heart-rending intensity to surpass even David Oistrakh’s world premiere recording for CBS with conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos.
You have to immerse yourself fully in the First Concerto’s forbiddingly claustrophobic world of anguished metaphors to discover its inner soul – and young British violinist Ruth Palmer does so fearlessly in the opening Notturno and third movement Passacaglia. There are times here when she appears to be merely breathing on her instrument, sharing half-whispered correspondences of painful intimacy. Interpretatively speaking, she is no less impressive in the whiplash Scherzo and high-energy finale, which she dispaches with astonishing flair and accuracy. Palmer sustains the most pure and jewelled sound thoughout, supported to the hilt by the Philharmonia, which plays with the greatest conviction under Benjamin Wallfisch. In fact my only slight reservation about this sumptuously engineered performance is Palmer’s occasional reluctance to throw care to the wind and risk a few ‘noises off’ as she drives the music home.
The central Allegretto of the late Sonata also finds Palmer slightly cushioning her vertical strokes and thereby taking some of the sting out of the music’s tail. But make no mistake, this is remarkable playing of considerable stature and a magnificent achievement for a debut album. Also included is a strikingly memorable half-hour documentary that traces Palmer’s visit to Russia, graced by a series of powerful monochrome images and her own perceptive comments on the music. Highly recommended.
Seriously Thrilling
Malcolm Hayes
Classic FM Magazine January 2007 Orchestral CD of the month
Ruth Palmer makes a remarkable debut in Shostakovich’s tragic First Violin Concerto. *****
Sure enough, Shostakovich’s centenary year has produced a spate of recordings of his First Violin Concerto. And now along comes Ruth Palmer, a young player making her debut CD with, of all things, this immense, immensely demanding, darkly tragic concerto – and who, instead of waiting for this or that company to come to her, raises the cash and engages the orchestra herself.
The result is seriously remarkable, and for my money the centenary’s most outstanding release so far. Palmer not only believes totally in the work but (and this is much rarer) can also convey this belief. Besides her mesmerising intensity and involvement, she summons startling firepower when it’s needed (which is often) and sustains it. She never sounds overstretched, not even by the fearsome cadenza linking the concerto’s slow movement and finale. And she gets a fired-up accompaniment from an evidently impressed Philharmonia. Her way with the late Violin Sonata’s spare sound-world, too, is every bit as gripping and moving. Tim Meara’s short DVD documentary, featuring palmer and Wallfisch visiting a snowbound Russia, tries over-hard to be visually inventive. But it also offers interesting thoughts from the composer’s widow Nina, from Shostakovich expert Gerard McBurney, and from Palmer herself.
CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK Telegraph (23/09/06)
**** ‘Real Bite’ Metro (24/07/06)